by ShagOnSports

Playoff please!!!

Michigan or Florida??? You can argue all day long for Michigan or Florida… What swayed me on Florida is there body of work over the season… They had some close games that they won and they won the SEC Championship against a good Arkansas team… Michigan finished second in the big ten… Florida playing the last weekend and Michigan not playing hurt Michigan no doubt… Bottom line is the regular season counts, a loss is not just a loss and in the case of Michigan that loss to OSU knocks them out of contention since they did not win their conference…

Louisville did not get the match up they deserved or were looking for… Here is the up and coming program in college football with allot still to prove and they end up with Wake Forest… Louisville will blow Wake out of the Orange Bowl… This could hurt Louisville for next year but I doubt it will... If Louisville goes to the Sugar Bowl and beats LSU or even beats Tennessee or Arkansas in a second tier bowl that would set better then blowing out Wake… No disrespect to Wake but the have a fence (there is no Ah or O there)… Remember West Virginia was ranked really high this year to start due to a win over Georgia last year in a bowl game…

1. Ohio State
2. Florida
3. Michigan
4. Louisville
5. LSU
6. Oklahoma
7. Boise State
8. Wisconsin
9. USC
10. Arkansas

Playoff time...

The playoff has to include the ACC Champion, SEC Champion, Big 12 Champion, Big Ten Champion and Pac 10 Champion so it could not just be the eight teams with the best BCS rating… I think the Big East needs to expand in order to qualify as automatic to at least ten teams… My playoff format would be the five major conference winners and then choose three at large teams based on their BCS rankings… Whether or not they are a conference champions after the first five to me is irrelevant…

Based on seeding we would have had the following match ups this past weekend:

Wake Forest (8) at Ohio State (1)
Oklahoma (6) at Michigan (3)

USC (7) at Florida (2)
LSU (5) at Louisville (4)

The next round would be the 8, 1 winner vs. the 6, 3 winner and the 7, 2 winner vs. the 5, 4 winner and then the big match up after the New Years Day bowls are done…

Playoff please… Last Saturday with these games would be the greatest day in sports period!!!

UK Football is going Bowling

Take the Wildcats Bowling; Take them bowling…

UK is not going to the local lanes as I predicted but an actual bowl game…

To this point UK Football has been successful… Just think a win against Tennessee and a win against South Carolina and this team is nine and three and in the Cotton or Outback bowl… If that was the case would Brooksy have his extension already???

This will be mine and my wife’s first bowl game experience… My parents went to the Peach Bowl with UK in 1976 so that is my closest connection to this point… We are excited to be able to get the opportunity to go to the game and hope this is the start of many bowls to come… This year UK had a favorable schedule and a year that UK should go to a bowl and has a chance to win nine games… This is all I ask as a fan…

Clemson looks to be a tough opponent for UK in the MCB… Clemson runs the ball well and often and that has not been a tough point for the UK defense this year… Kentucky can score points in bunches and the object of the game is to score more points then the other team, right!!! Clemson is rich in football tradition and for a long time were the dominant team in ACC and on the East Coast… They won a National Championship in 1982 but were soon on probation after that year… Something to do with the Tigerettes, grades and recruiting practices…

The extra practice and bowl experience should benefit this young team well… They will need it for next year…

Reminder!!! Next year UK has Louisville, Florida, Tennessee and LSU at home and Vandy, Georgia, South Carolina and Arkansas on the road… That is seven preseason ranked teams and more the likely four or five in the top ten!!! It will take two wins in this pool of games plus win the other four games to win six games… Six or Seven wins against this schedule will be tough…

Middies are going Bowling too……

Navy finished a strong 9 and 3 for the season… They will play Boston College in Charlotte and I would love to be there for that one also…

This team is a great story… Navy is now missing two key components in their offense, the Quarterback and the Fullback… The team overcame the loss of their quarterback, who was the new starter for 2006 in the fourth game of the year and against Army lost their fullback… Goes to show that coach Paul Johnson has an offense that if properly executed will work and the parts are interchangeable…

The Navy offense is usually a one back set (full back), with two wings and two wide receivers and they very rarely uses a tight end… Navy uses the Offense to mainly run but it is a spread offense and meant to be able to pass the ball also… Navy does not have a drop back passer and Coach Johnson has said that if they did Navy would throw the ball more…

I run this offense on the PS2 game and I like all the multiple sets it has to offer and the fact the defense cannot get much of a key off of the formation…. Would this offense work at Alabama or Miami or at a school like Kentucky??? I think so… The option is a college offense meant to key on misdirection and speed at the skill positions… Urban Myer runs a similar offense at Florida and both of these offenses are updated versions of the old wishbone or option offenses that Alabama won most of their National Championships with and both Oklahoma and Nebraska ran for years… Football as it was meant to be played…

Back to the Middies… This will be a great test for this team… BC will be a tough opponent for Navy and a good measuring stick to where this program is in comparison to the larger schools… Go Navy!!!

Navy Coach Paul Johnson has been linked to several job openings… I would like to see him stay at Navy but would accept him moving to Alabama or Kentucky…

Kentucky Wildcats Basketball

The following paragraphs were written before the UT Chattanooga and IU games…

Before you start reading though let me say one thing… If Tubby Smith were to leave UK I do not want Rick Pitino to be the UK coach and his nothing to do with him being at Louisville… I appreciate what Rick did when he was at UK but he is gone and that chapter is over… John Pelphrey should be the next UK coach period!!!

First of all I think Tubby Smith is an outstanding coach and he is a solid recruiter… He has great classes two of the last three years but I agree that something is wrong… The landscape in college basketball has changed in the last ten years due to kid going straight to the NBA and schools putting more of an emphasis on basketball that did not do this before so the talent pool is also more spread… Those two me are two of the issues…

People seem to have an issue with Tubby and his style of play and I can understand that issue but I like good defense… People want to see this team run up and down the floor… This style has hurt is recruiting and all you have to do is read the comments made by North Carolina’s Wright who lit UK up in Chapel Hill… I like good defense but you have to be able to score to win…

People also had an issue with Joe B Hall and his style during his tenure at UK… By the way Joe B gets no credit but he went to three final fours in eleven years as the UK coach which puts him in some elite company… Joe B deserves to be in the Basketball Hall of Fame but I will save that argument for another day!!!

Where has Tubby gone wrong???

When he had team turmoil back in 2001 it all started with one player named Rashad Carruth… Carruth was a cancer and that cancer spread amongst the team… The year after Carruth left the troubles started going away and Tubby went on a four year run of wins that could not be topped by any other school… How we forget???

This turmoil of last year started when Tubby allowed Patrick Sparks to attend UK for the last two years of his career… Sparks was never about anything but Patrick Sparks… He was selfish and appeared to be in his own world… A guy who could have been a leader ala Chuck Hayes was nothing of the sort and his attitude and selfishness impacted the team last year… I believe Chuck Hayes held Sparks and Rondo in check for one year and that is why UK came within OT of going to the final four… After Hayes was gone the two just free wheeled… I fault Tubby for allowing this to happen but I am willing to give Tubby a chance to correct these issues…

Is this team in trouble???

Right now they are… Smooth cannot handle the point and if it were me I would turn the point over to Derrick Jasper and let him learn on the job… I thought Smooth had the skills to handle this position but he cannot be the main ball handler in the Offense… Smooth can fill this role when Jasper is not in the game but he is a better player receiving the first pass in the offense then being the first passer in the offense… (I did not see the game against UTC but sounds like Tubby went with Jasper at the point)…

Bobby Perry cannot shoot (he has an injured hand), Sheray Thomas is still Sheray Thomas and Jared Carter (He is now out for the year) should not get on the floor in my opinion… Orbzut has been over coached to a point that he cannot even function (this guy is a solid athlete, runs the floor well and should be making a solid contribution)… Joe Crawford (aka Derrick Hord) is not a ball handler either (seven turnovers against UNC)… He needs to play off of the third pass in the offense and right now he cannot make an open shot (that is not Tubby out there shooting folks)… Another mistake I believe is Tubby should have let Joe leave when he wanted to leave two years ago and UK would be better off without him… Let Meeks play more minutes in this spot now!!!

Where would Kentucky be without Randolph Morris… He is finally showing what he can do… He outplayed Mr. Everything Tyler Hansborugh at UNC and now has a mean streak in him that he needs to keep…

I wish Tubby would have cleaned house with his assistants!!! David Hobbs has not made any impact that I can see, Reggie Hanson is a great guy but he is not making much of an impact on developing the inside players and I do not understand why Tubby hired Sean Finney back??? I would like to see some young aggressive assistant coaches, ones who can relate to these kids in the recruiting process and someone to come in who could revamp the offensive sets to something that is more effective…

I have a problem when UK laces them up against any team when I do not think they have a chance to win like against UNC… I am not giving up on Tubby but………… He has until the end of this year in my opinion to straighten this out… If the team is showing allot of promise at the end of the year then I believe (if Morris stays) that Tubby and company will make a run in 2007-08 season…

Can Tubby survive the heat??? Let’s talk in April… I do not know but I have missed twice this year… Once about Rich Brooks and once about Tony Larussa (I did not want St Louis to get rid of Tony but I thought it may be time for a fresh face after the way they finished the regular season if they wanted to win a World Series)…

Kentucky Vs Indiana

I have been to the UK Vs IU game 11 of the last 12 years… I have seen UK nine and only loose two… This was my first time seeing a UK and IU game at CoRuppt arena and I was not disappointed… Hats off to the IU fans who represented well at the game yesterday… Next year UK plays at Assembly Hall… I like the UK Vs IU rivalry much more then the UK Vs U of L rivalry and that comes from growing up in Western Kentucky…

If you like knock down drag out basketball then you liked this game… I love defense and I thought both teams played great defense… Kentucky helped out the IU D with some horrible shooting from outside the three point line but the play of Randolph Morris, Bobby Perry, Derrick Jasper and Perry Stevenson carried UK through to victory…

It was a pretty good crowd for most of the game but I am not sure about the booing that occurred when Tubby selected Sheray Thomas to take the place of the injured Bobby Perry late in the game… I am not a Sheray fan but that is tough to boo that kid and I would like to think that people were booing Tubby for the decision and not the player… Sheray did get a big rebound last in the game…

Kentucky is still struggling on offense… I give IU credit for their defense but UK just looks lost on offense… Joe Crawford could not shoot from outside, struggled to handle the ball and seemed afraid to take the ball to the rim… Smooth is now in the right spot but he did not have a good shooting game against IU but looked good with penetration and work on the fast breaks… Bobby Perry played well and had a double double against IU with points and rebounds… Perry Stevenson looked good on the floor in limited playing time against IU… Without one Randolph Morris this team would be in big trouble… Randolph had another great game on Saturday and his shooting touch was solid on both turnarounds and face up shots to the basket…

After the game was over my wife and I were in the lobby of the Hyatt talking about the game with Brad Jarrett and Scott McClure… We ended up talking to the voice of the Reds Marty Brennamen for about a half hour… Marty is a great guy and was very courteous and interested in visiting with us… Most everyone knows what a baseball geek I am so I had a great time talking to him about baseball and sports in general… A couple of things he told us:

- He thinks UK fans should get off of Tubby… He thinks Tubby is a great coach and that allot of the people who dislike Tubby dislike him due to his skin color… He cited sources with some of the local papers and contacts in the UK Athletic office who have described some of the racist letters that they get about Tubby on a daily basis… I believe this is true and unfortunately know people who fill this way about Tubby… Marty would like to see Tubby at UK until he retires…

- Marty used to do allot of basketball games but he just sticks to baseball now… He was at the game on Saturday as a fan and was not on any kind of assignment…

- He thinks that Mark McGwire is not a Hall of Famer not just because of the steroids but he does not like his body of work during his career… I agree... Dave Kingman has similar numbers and he was never considered… Steroids or no I also agree with is assessment that Raphael Palmero is not a Hall of Famer either… I do not think that McGwire would have passed the 500 home run mark without the juice… As far as I am concerned Roger Maris still has the single season home run record because he did it clean…

- He thinks that Pete Rose deserves to be in with his numbers and that if the steroids guys start getting in then Pete deserves to be on the ballot… He thinks that if Pete is ever allowed to be on the ballot he will be elected… ‘

- He has the same opinion about Barry Bonds that most people do…

- Marty said to watch out for pitching prospect Homer Bailey who will be pitching for the Louisville Bats when the season opens next year… He said that Homer is one of the best pitching prospects he has seen come up in years and expects big things from this guy and does not expect him to be in the minors long…

- Marty is excited about the Reds for next year… He likes the moves they have made but wants to see them get another starter and identify a closer before the year starts… He is looking forward to Spring Training this year..

- When we asked Marty about why the Reds traded Jason Larue he stated that Larue was a good player and good teammate until he got benched in favor of David Ross… We asked because my wife loves Jason Larue…

- His son Thom is a closet Ohio State fan and will have a tough time keeping his bias in check when he call the Championship Game in January… He believes that Ohio State will win and he wants to see College adopt a playoff format…

I wished I would have asked him about what he thinks of the wildcard in baseball, possible division realignments and the need for a salary cap but I forgot to ask….

Random Thoughts

- My sister Jayne who live in Germany is getting married so my wife and I will be making a trip over next year... Exciting stuff!!! She is also getting ready to possibly go work in Afghanastan for six months with the new Afghan goverment through the United Nations...

- Jim Tressel got it right by not voting in the coaches’ poll last Sunday… Remember though this is the same Tressel who did not tell the truth earlier in the year about how he had voted in a poll… The coaches’ voting is a joke anyway… I see more games then they do… How can you have them be a part of this debacle???

- I really liked the New Years Day Bowls being on New Years Day… TV got in the way and now they are spread the games out for three days now… College football is not a prime time game… Play the games on a Saturday or on New Years Day when people are off work… They lose fans during this time period with these weeknight games on January 2nd and 3rd…

- Sheets says that if he chooses to do so Randolph Morris could leave UK right now and sign with any NBA team he wants as a free agent… Would that be something if he did!!!

- Has the NBA started??? Does anybody care??? I don’t until the playoffs!!!

- I think the V Foundation is a great thing and has raised 60 million for cancer research… They put Jimmy V up on a platform… Seems like everyone has forgotten that this is this not the same Jimmy V whose NC State program was put on probation for multiple violations and there were rumors the he and his program were tied to organized crime!!! Proof that people can make mistakes and something good can trump the bad…

- I finished in the top 5% on Yahoo picking against the spread on their pick set each week during the season… After blistering the picks the first four weeks I went 95 and 95 over the next ten weeks but better then 65% the last three weeks… My best finish was 11th place in Fans of Navy (out of 500 plus) and then 86th in Fans from Kentucky (over 2400 hundred entries)… Ten bucks a game nets me $300 in a betting scenario for the year…

ShagOnMusic

On my way to Atlanta this week the CD player in the vehicle I rented did not work and I was prepared to listen to Elvis Costello, Sting, Tori Amos and Mercury Rev (things that I though my co-workers traveling with me would listen to)... I did bring my MP3 but there is not a plug for it in the vehicle... Nothing worse then driving in a car with only radio access…